Swaging is a method that is employed to reduce the diameter or thickness of a rod-like or tube-like structure. Swaging may be carried out by forging, squeezing or hammering the work piece. In one type of swaging tool, the work piece is fed into an opening formed by a plurality of die segments arranged generally surrounding the opening. The die segments are forced radially inward to a predetermined point. As the die segments travel radially inward, they converge on the work piece and strike the outer diameter of the work piece, thereby tending to reduce the diameter of the work piece. To force the die segments inward, a movable tool assembly often engages the outside of the die segments to push them radially inward.
After the swaging operation, the die segments are in a compressed state, substantially surrounding the work piece. To remove the work piece, the die segments must be moved radially backward to an non-compressed or expanded state. Once the die segments are in their normal expanded state, the work piece may be removed and another work piece may be inserted. The process may then be repeated.
In some cases, the swaging mechanism is used on portions of a continuous work piece such as a long continuous tube or pipe. In such cases, the swaging mechanism may operate in a substantially similar manner as described above, except that when the swaging die segments move to the expanded state after swaging one portion of the continuous work piece, the work piece is simply advanced to place an adjacent portion of the work piece in position to be swaged.
In general, one desired result of the swaging process is to produce work pieces having a predetermined thickness, diameter or other dimension. As portions of the swaging tool experience wear, however, there is a potential for variations in the diameter or other dimension of the swaged work piece. For example, when the die segments wear and get smaller, they reduce the outer dimension of the work piece to a commensurate lesser degree.
Such variations in result may be reduced or eliminated by replacing the worn parts, including, but not limited to, the die segments. However, frequent tool repairs and part replacement can be costly and time consuming. Accordingly, there is an economic incentive to reduce the frequency of tool repair and replacement. Nevertheless, infrequent tool repairs and part replacement can undesirably increase the error margin in the dimensions of the final swaged product.
What is needed, therefore, is a swaging assembly that can produce parts of a predetermined thickness while reducing the need for frequent repair and part replacement.